Ericee.] FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 161 
splitting down the back of the cells. Seeds numerous, minute, attached to placente at the base of each cell. The 
placentee are united to a central column, which remains after the valves separate.—This is a very extensive genus, 
especially in damp mountainous regions of the Tropics ; it is also found in temperate North and Antarctic America, but 
notin Europe, Northern Asia, or in Africa. A few species are found in Tasmania. The berried fruit, arising from the 
enlargement of the calyx, though a prominent feature in many of the species, and one on which the genus has been 
made mainly, if not wholly, to depend, to distinguish it from Andromeda, Pieris, etc., is a character of very minor im- 
portance ; it is not accompanied by any others whereby the species of each may be recognized before coming into 
fruit, and is besides variable in degree; and in both G. antipoda and G. fluviatilis capsular and berried fruit may be 
found on the same branch, both being perfectly ripe. (Named in honour of M. M. Gautier, a French physician, 
who settled in Canada, and wrote a work on the Sugar-maple.) 
§ a. Leaves alternate. Flowers solitary, axillary, sometimes numerous towards the ends of the branches, which 
become leafy racemes. 
1. Gaultheria antipoda, Forst. ; fruticosa, vage divaricatim ramosa, ramulis pubescenti-tomentosis et 
setosis, foliis late ovatis oblongis lanceolatisve obtusis serratis, floribus 5-6-meris axillaribus solitariis breve 
pedicellatis, pedicello pubescente bracteolato, calyce baccato v. immutato. Forst. Prodr. A. Rich. Flora. 
A. Cunn. Prodr. Gaultheria erecta, Banks et Sol. MSS. e£ Ic. 
Var. a; frutex erectus, ramosus, ramulis pubescenti-tomentosis, foliis late oblongis rotundatisve 
elliptico-lanceolatisve. 
Var. B. fluviatilis; frutex erectus, virgatus, foliis elliptico- v. lineari-lanceolatis, floribus parvis versus 
apices ramulorum subracemosis, pedicellis longioribus glabratis. G. fluviatilis, A. Cunn. Prodr. 
Var. y. depressa; fruticulus depressus, vage divaricatim ramosus, ramulis setis fulvis onustis pedun- 
culisque pubescentibus, foliis latis angustisve, floribus axillaribus, calycibus fructiferis valde auctis. G. 
depressa, JVobis in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. v. 6. p. 267. 
Var. 8. microphylla ; fruticulus prostatus, vage ramosus, foliis rigide coriaceis ovatis lineari-lanceola- 
tisve 2-4 lin. longis, pedunculis pubescentibus glabratisve. 
Var. e. ciliata ; foliis parvis coriaceis lanceolatis serratis, dentibus setigeris. 
Has. Throughout the Islands, abundant, Banks and Solander, etc. Var. B. In shaded places. Var. y, 
ò, and e. In mountainous localities. 
An exceedingly common and variable plant. Stems usually 2-3 feet high, but prostrate on the mountains. 
Branches spreading, pubescent, and also covered more or less thickly with appressed black or yellow-brown bristles. 
Leaves coriaceous, shortly petiolate, orbicular, oblong, linear-lanceolate or elliptical, blunt, sharp, or acuminate, 2—4 
lines long in var. microphylla, 2-2 inch in vars. a and 6, bluntly serrate, the teeth terminated by a bristle in var. e. 
Flowers axillary, solitary, few, or crowded towards the ends of. the branches, which become leafy racemes, especially 
in var. B, small, white. Peduncles curved, pubescent, longer and glabrous in var. 8 and some mountain states. 
Calya five- rarely six-lobed; lobes red at the tips, often swelling round the capsule, sometimes as large as a wild 
cherry, often remaining quite unchanged.—I have reduced Mr. Cunningham's G. fluviatilis to a variety of the 
G. antipoda with no hesitation; also the alpine Tasmanian G. depressa, which has been found abundantly in the 
Middle Island by Mr. Bidwill and Dr. Lyall. 
8 b. Leaves alternate. Flowers in axillary or terminal, bracteolate, leafless, many-flowered, simple or branched 
racemes. 
2. Gaultheria rupestris, Br.; frutex glaberrimus, ramulis rigidis setosis glabratisve, foliis breve petio- 
latis crassis coriaceisque oblongis ellipticis lineari-oblongisve subacutis acuminatisve crenato-dentatis, 
racemis terminalibus axillaribusque elongatis glaberrimis pubescentibusve, pedicellis basi bracteolatis, floribus 
2 R 
